Riley's POV

I was in the hospital for twenty-four hours and I was glad when I could leave. I ended up sleeping through the rest of the preliminary matches due to exhaustion. Juniper stood as a bodyguard in case Orochimaru decided to pull another fast one. Sasuke's match had been after mine and as I expected Kakashi performed the Cursed Sealing Jutsu on him too.

Kabuto also made an attempt to kidnap the Uchiha which Kakashi was quick to stop. After the matches did I get a visit from my brother alongside Sakura, and Naruto. Sakura of course fought against Ino and the match ended up as a double knock out. Naruto fought Kiba and won though I wish I had been there when he farted in front of Kiba's face. Since the Inuzuka clan had a strong sense of smell, Kiba really got it bad.

Rhoan fought against Misumi and that fight at first hadn't been easy for him. But in the end Rhoan defeated him thanks to his wind and gift of reading minds. My opponent in the next round was Shikamaru and this fight I was definitely looking forward to. Rhoan would fight against Temari which was going to be tough fight since she could use wind abilities too.

Everyone was given a few days to recover before training would commence. For me I had enough laying around and Juniper agreed to start our training. I had no idea who would train Rhoan but Kakashi reassured me his teacher was someone that could be trusted. My mate would personally see to Sasuke's training and I just hoped Kakashi didn't over do it with the Uchiha.

I ate a light breakfast so I wouldn't hurl while I trained. Juniper gave the location to meet and the spot was next to a waterfall. It didn't take long for the Anbu to arrive.

"Good morning Riley I hope your ready"

"If I can survive the Forest of Death, I can handle whatever you have to teach me"

Juniper chuckled at my enthusiasm before continuing.

"The next few weeks will be hard but you will become stronger and ready to fight for the final exam, also I will teach you how to control the mark on your neck from activating"

I nodded and placed a hand where my mark was. There was no way I wanted to give into the desire to kill innocent people. Orochimaru had been right when I lost someone close to me many years ago. Her name was Taylor and she was killed by psychopaths who believed dragon shifters were bloodthirsty animals. I was thirteen when I witnessed my best friend die.

I shoved those memories and focused on Juniper. The Anbu dragon shifter walked over to me and placed a scroll down onto the ground.

"First thing I am going to teach you is the Summoning Technique, you may not have chakra, but your water element will allow you to summon, I'll show you"

She bit her thumb and she made sure her blood was on her flesh before she placed her hand onto the ground. Smoke covered the air and when it cleared my eyes went wide as a huge silver snake looked back at me. It looked like a Black Mamba and Juniper stroked the serpents snout.

"This is one of the snakes I can call to my side without using chakra, my birth element is earth, and snakes are earth dwellers, say hello Kazumi"

Kazumi bent her head down and she stopped until she was mere inches from my body.

"You don't need to be afraid of me, young one"

"I'm not your just really beautiful"

And she was a beautiful snake. Her silver scales glittered in the sunlight and her eyes were emerald green.

It was then my summoning training started. Well I first had to sign the sealing scroll using my blood and the next task was using my water element to perform the summoning technique. The first few tries nothing happened and of course this was to be expected. I mean I wasn't going to master the summoning move in one day.

After fifteen tries my dragon was getting annoyed.

Let me take over

"Your dragon needs to not distract you, even I can sense her annoyance"

I nodded and told my other half to shut up. She huffed before coiling her body up and went to sleep. With her silent I continued the summoning technique. By lunch time I managed to successfully summon a creature.

"What the hell did you summon me for?!"

My eyes went wide as a really annoyed bird looked back at me. It's tone was male and it was the size of a regular songbird. I could definitely feel the water element radiating from this little guy. His feathers were a midnight blue, his feet were light brown with sharp talons on them. His eyes were aquamarine blue and his beak matched his feathers. His tail feathers were also midnight blue and they were longer than his body.

"Hold your tongue Tsunami" Kazumi growled.

The bird turned to the snake.

"Heh long time no see Kazumi, you look old"

Kazumi gave the smart ass bird a hiss in annoyance and Juniper chuckled before she bent down and stroked Tsunami's little head.

"You shouldn't complain didn't you say you wanted to have someone summon you?"

"Yeah but I wasn't expecting a girl"

That did it!

"I'm a grown ass woman Birdbrain!"

"I beg to differ" Tsunami replied back.

"Enough!" Juniper yelled and Tsunami winced at her voice. "Tsunami this girl is a dragon shifter like me and she has the water element, don't give her attitude unless you wish to become snake food"

That got the small bird to shut his trap and he eyed me for a second. He then continued after a sigh.

"Alright I'll see what your capable of, I'm a Water Phoenix in case you were wandering what creature I was"

"Oh that's cool!" I exclaimed.

The small phoenix cocked his head to the side before replying.

"Perhaps you will be interesting to work with"

I spent the next few days training really hard under Juniper's guidance. With each passing day I was able to summon larger water phoenixes. Tsunami as it turned had one sister and brother. His sister Aqua was larger than he was. Tsunami had the ability to use create small rain storms while Aqua could unleash create a larger storm but only one equal enough to a late afternoon spring downpour. Their brother Dorian was much stronger than his two younger siblings. He was larger than both Tsunami and Aqua and his powers allowed him to create a sudden storm just by shrieking.

By the seventh day I was ready to move on but Juniper wanted me to make one last summon.,Whenever I returned to the apartment after a day of training I was pretty damn tired and Rhoan was too.

Juniper waited patiently as I focused on my water element and imagined it taking the form of a large water phoenix. In my mind the water took shape and I quickly bit my thumb before placing it onto the ground. Smoke surrounded the air and when it cleared a beautiful water phoenix flapped it's wings in the air.

I sensed the phoenix was female and she was big alright. She was the size of Gamabunta and with each flap of her wings I saw shards of ice underneath them. Her feathers were a light shade of blue and her eyes were silver. Her tail feathers were longer than the other phoenixes combined, they were ice blue and ice radiated off from them as well. Her feet and beak matched Tsunami's in the color department.

The phoenix landed on the ground and it shook beneath her. I got to my feet and walked over to her.

"Well done Riley, you managed to summon Anahita, she's the mother of Dorian, Aqua, and Tsunami"

"Wow your really beautiful" I told the phoenix coming to a stop in front of her.

"Thank you" Anahita replied. "I can sense the potential you have, and I look forward to working with you"

I smiled before I placed a hand against Anahita's beak and stroked it. The water phoenix emitted a gentle hum as I stroked her.

Juniper then decided to stop our training for the day and I decided to see if I could see some of my friends before heading back to the apartment.